Conservapedia...

[Agent]

They got it from a book called 'The Hitch hikers guide to the galaxy'. Excellent read.

Yes, probably my fav. book, along with Dune

Infact, have been listening to the radio series on the train all this week. People have often been looking at me like an idiot when laughing out loud

[IBM]

They got it from a book called 'The Hitch hikers guide to the galaxy'. Excellent read.

My goodness. Really? I guess I'll have to look that one up then.

[Whiternoise]

Ahh, but the problem is - how do you know that they are well researched and accurate?
The main problem with WP is that anyone can insert false material, and unless you know the subject, you might not know otherwise.

Don’t get me wrong, im not anti WP (I like the idea a lot), but it shouldn’t ever be used as a bible for referencing. Most of our uni lessons have a ban on using WP sourced material.

Depends very much on what subject you're looking up. I use it a fair bit for physics/chemistry type stuff and most people can't be bothered to vandalise those articles (what would be the point - hardly anyone ever reads them). Plus, wikipedia tend to have a pretty good policy on removing edits that are biased, blatently false or that are in bad taste. Oh, and they lock quite a lot of topics as well, which is a good move..

Yup, college has the same policy really - besides the fact that it might not be right, it's incredibly easy to catch people who use wikipedia because of the ease of cross checking information. Plus, there are better websites in most cases.

It is however useful if you want to find general information about things like games, music (artist info, discographies, etc.). I wouldn't ever use it for anything serious, but for general purpose browsing (and for the sheer amount of information) there isn't really a better all-purpose encyclopaedia online.

EDIT: GRRR... how dare they degrade the great Douglas Adams by plagiarising his words on such a website.. - and i hope that was sarcasm ibm

[Funkstar]

They got it from a book called 'The Hitch hikers guide to the galaxy'. Excellent read.

"a book" doesn't really do it justice you know. It is after all a trilogy in five parts along with a film, a TV and a Radio series.

So long and thanks for all the fish...

edit: oh and there is also http://www.h2g2.com, so 'don't panic'

[chicken]

Ahh, but the problem is - how do you know that they are well researched and accurate?
The main problem with WP is that anyone can insert false material, and unless you know the subject, you might not know otherwise.

Don’t get me wrong, im not anti WP (I like the idea a lot), but it shouldn’t ever be used as a bible for referencing. Most of our uni lessons have a ban on using WP sourced material.

Maybe not the best of comparisons when going for impartiality and accuracy of facts eh?

I'd trust Wiki fact for fact over the Bible any day!

[Agent]

Maybe not the best of comparisons when going for impartiality and accuracy of facts eh?

I'd trust Wiki fact for fact over the Bible any day!

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bible

4. (lowercase) any book, reference work, periodical, etc., accepted as authoritative, informative, or reliable: He regarded that particular bird book as the birdwatchers' bible.

Wasnt comparing
Although if i was, id fully agree

[MadduckUK]

but is the word bible used bacuase of the religious book, or is the religious book named that to make it sound authoritive?

chicken or egg basically?

[mcmiller]

has anyone read there example list of bias in wikipedia they seem to think they because they use the proper uk spelling that some how its biased and that the american spelling is correct because theres more ppl in america

[Agent]

but is the word bible used bacuase of the religious book...

Id go with that.
But culture changes religion to a huge degree over time - hence one of the main reasons I don’t believe in religion. It’s changed to suit people at any given time.

Surely if it’s the 'word of god' then it should be static. Unless god changes his mind a lot.
Then again, this is an entirely new debate

Reminds me of a nice quote from HHGG: http://www.englisch.schule.de/wiesmoor/ency.htm

Read "Babel fish" at the top

[Andeh13]

blimey, i appear to underestimate the good taste this forum has when it comes to books. Never have i seen such agreement towards 'A Hitch Hiker Guide To The Galaxy'. I originally planned to elaborate a bit more on my previous post, but figured it would go right over the heads of everyone.

In order to stay on topic:
iv never seen any real bias on wikipedia, fair enough on heated subjects like Bush, America, Islam, Muslims etc they are heavily policed, but even then if you read it all, you wont find too many blatently biased facts. Anything that is even remotely biased is generally discussed & corrected before too much dammage is done.

[GrahamGarside]

Heres the funniest thing about it though

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay
http://www.conservapedia.com/Special...arch=gay&go=Go

[MadduckUK]

its arguments like these that make me glad i rely on http://uncyclopedia.org for my facts

[dave87]

I can't actually get on it... 'spose that's no bad thing though..

[dave87]

Just got onto it and this made me laugh:

# Wikipedia often uses foreign spelling of words, even though most English speaking users are American. Look up "Most Favored Nation" on Wikipedia and it automatically converts the spelling to the British spelling "Most Favoured Nation", even there there are far more American than British users. Look up "Division of labor" on Wikipedia and it automatically converts to the British spelling "Division of labour," then insists on the British spelling for "specialization" also.[3]. Enter "Hapsburg" (the European ruling family) and Wikipedia automatically changes the spelling to Habsburg, even though the American spelling has always been "Hapsburg". Within entries British spellings appear in the silliest of places, even when the topic is American. Conservapedia favors American spellings of words.

Erm, that may be because the American population can't spell?

[GrahamGarside]

We English always have to put up with American spelling in windows, I'm still on 16bit colour depth for my desktop because I refuse to acknowledge the option to change to 32bit 'color'

I mean even the French get the right spelling in Windows as far as I know, what's a guy gotta do to get things spelled right.